Treaty against fossil fuels floated at UN climate summit

The idea of a windfall tax on carbon profits has gained traction in recent months amid sky-high earnings for oil and gas majors

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: The world should adopt a treaty that stops the spread of fossil fuel energy, much like it has tried to with nuclear weapons, a prominent small island leader proposed as vulnerable nations Tuesday continued to push for more action and money at international climate talks.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano told The Associated Press Tuesday morning that he would propose a nonproliferation treaty for coal, oil and natural gas later in a speech at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt. Natano and Tuvalu, along with other vulnerable nations, have moral authority in negotiations, especially in light of mega climate disasters.

A year ago at climate talks in Glasgow, a proposal to call for a “phase out” coal the dirtiest of the fossil fuels was changed at the last minute to “phase down” by a demand from India, earning the wrath of small island nations and some vulnerable countries.

Small island nation leaders also called for some kind of global tax on the profits of fossil fuel corporations that are making billions of dollars of profit a day during a global energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“While they are profiting the planet is burning,” said Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, speaking on behalf of his and other small island nations.

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa called on similar nations to form a “countermanding bloc of the victims of climate change.’’